Our Yard

This morning I took some pictures of the beautiful crab apple trees in our back and front yards, and the beginnings of some gardens I put in last fall. I hope to continue the work this summer and have many more blooms next spring!

The tree in the back yard, with some of its blossoms:

The front tree - actually two that have grown together, creating a beautiful combination of white and pink blooms (and my peonies coming up underneath!):

The front garden by our driveway - asiatic and glory lilies in the back, astilbe in the middle, and chives and some little white and yellow ground cover in the front. Morning glories also climb up the railing in the summer!

The hasta plants I put in last fall in the side yard are starting to come up:Sadie keeps watch over the yard while I check the gardens and take pictures. :)

Fun with Sadie!

Don't we have a beautiful little girl? Sadie loves the barn, not only because she gets to pose for her beauty queen shots ;), but also because she gets to play with the jumps in the arena! Here are a few action shots of our flying pup doing her own version of agility:

Flying through the air with the greatest of ease!

...ears flapping in the breeze... :)

Look at that form!

"Yay, I LOVE to jump!"

"Geez mom, that was hard work - hold me up and get me some water!"

Spring Things

Well, it seems like posting is becoming a monthly occurence around here, which I guess is better than never! Although being busy is not a good excuse, it is at least true - since Luke and I hit the ground running here on April 1st I worked 28 out of the past 30 days (working the last two Sundays at horse shows) and Luke not only headed back to his part-time carpentry work and his own farrier practice but also took on several clients from a fellow farrier who pinched a nerve in his back and is still recuperating from surgery! April and May are definitely some of the busiest months around here, what with horses getting spring tune-ups to be show-ready by summer (both training-wise and shoeing-wise!), our annual HGF Open House which we had on Apr. 20th, spring cleaning both at the barn and at home and continuing with all the "regular" stuff like keeping food in the cupboards, routine maintenance on the vehicles and rotating clothes through the washer and dryer on a somewhat regular basis. :)

While our bodies are weary at the moment - Luke's from doing every type of carpentry work imaginable in addition to doing 6-8 horses in a day on his "days off," mine from jumping over 200 jumps the weekend of Apr. 19-20th and regularly working 4-7 horses per day - we are very happy to have mostly warm temperatures and mostly sunshine finally permeating our northern outpost. ;) We are looking at more rain this week but can't really complain since most of April was brilliantly sunny (several time the forcast was for "abundant sunshine!") and unseasonably warm.

This month we are also looking forward to reconnecting with family and friends. Luke is travelling out to Montana May 13-19 to visit his hometown and attend a friend's wedding, while I am headed to Boston on the 16th and 17th for Jonathan's graduation from Gordon. Afterwards the Pinckney clan will be returning to our home for a much anticipated 4 days of visiting before they head back down south. So in case we don't get around to posting on the blog, you'll know where we are. ;)

Enjoy the spring weather, wherever you are!